Thursday, October 1, 2015

Lots of worth-reading news and opinion today

Despite having unsubscribed from over 50 mailing lists, my email flood is building back up. With my sleep and health schedule, plus some writing, speaking and personal projects, I'm having to delete many unread. Sorry. ~Bob

Excerpt: Multiple people are reportedly dead at a community college campus in southwestern Oregon, where authorities told Fox News they responded to a report of a shooting Thursday at around 10:30 a.m. local time.

HE WANTED TO BE A MARINE - EVERY DAY SINCE, HE'S CROSSED MY MIND. By Col. Andy Weddington, USMC (Ret)

Hey, Hillary, how' that "reset" button working? Hey Obama, remember when you mocked Mitt Romney for saying Russia was a big threat, saying the 1980s called and want their foreign policy back? Turns out the foreign policy of the 1980s was more successful than the one you borrowed from the 1930s! ~Bob

Important: Russia begins airstrikes in Syria; U.S. warns of new concerns in conflict

Buried in the story: The strikes appeared to have also hit groups backed by the United States, including rebels who have been trained by the CIA. A U.S. official said there was “no reason to doubt reports from the region that coalition-backed forces from Hama were hit,” a reference to a rebel group known as Tajammu al-Aaza based in that western Syrian province.

Putin just spat in our face

A Russian general went to the embassy in Baghdad and left a note telling the USA that Russia would begin bombing runs in Syria in one hour and the US forces should stay well clear of the area. They then went ahead and bombed a bunch of assorted groups, none of whom were ISIS. This is perfect, this is Putin laughing at Obama, and showing the world who really has the cojones to do things, who will really go all out to support whomever he pleases, Obama and everyone else be damned. John Kerry is disappointed and upset, but hopes we'll get better communications very soon. Yes, a great idea, they can then give us the finger and laugh out loud so much more conveniently, and go ahead doing exactly what they please. What is Obama going to do, send our jets to shoot down theirs or strafe them on the ground to keep them from going up at all? (Please stop laughing now.) Reagan would have known what to do, but then again, he never would have let it get this far in the first place. Watch, now things will just roll along downhill faster and faster and Obama will have to figure out if it's safer to just pull our people out of there rather than have something unpleasant happen with the Russians. --Del

Worth Reading: Obama’s Talk and Putin’s Blitz: A Russian Middle East Coup in Three Acts. As the world audience contemplates this latest drama in the reshaping of the 21st Century World Order. By Claudia Rosett

I had recently wondered, after the smiling "up yours" from Putin to Obama by the air strikes in Syria, what kind of response we'd see. Now we know, Kerry says a Russian somewhere has said they agree that we should communicate better. Well, that certainly fixes things up, and shows the depth of our resolve to deal with Putin's brinksmanship, doesn't it? I certainly feel much better now. What a sad, sad joke this is. The Russians will continue to do exactly as they please, they will bomb whomever Assad hates most, and the ISIS guys can laugh and ride it out to see everyone else get hit. And the world will see clearly who knows how to use power and has the will to do it. Our status in the Middle East will slide from "poor" to "who cares?", and our ability to influence anything there will move close to zero. --Del

Excerpt: At least 400 emails that Hillary Clinton sent or received through her private computer server while secretary of state contained classified material, according to the State Department’s latest update Wednesday from its ongoing review of more than 30,000 emails.

Worth Hearing: Try To Get Your Head Around This - Sweden Is Gone, Sweden Is Finished. By Pat Condell

I just saw an article about changes in Swedish law that allows non-citizens to hold high offices in the government. And that it has the highest rape incidence in Europe, but the police cannot identify the rapists by race or origin. In Norway they can, and last year 41 of 41 rapes in the country were by Muslim immigrants. It does seem that they are having serious trouble with the wave of immigrants. Take a look at the YouTube video. This is why I have concerns about waves of immigrants where no one can sort through the attitudes of those coming. Many may be fine people, but for sure, not all are ready to fit into Western culture. --Del

Excerpt: In general, the history of regulation of business is a sordid one. Most of the time, the beneficiary of regulation of business is the regulated industry itself! ... As the leftist historian Gabriel Kolko has documented, the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) — our first federal regulatory agency — was dominated by, and served the interest of, the railroads. Similarly, the regulatory apparatus created by the Meat Inspection Act of 1906 served the interests of large meat packers. Safety standards were invariably already being met — or were easily accommodated — by large companies. But the regulations forced many small enterprises out of business and made it difficult for new ones to enter the industry. This same pattern — of regulatory agencies serving the interests of the regulated — was repeated with the establishment of almost all subsequent regulatory agencies….

Excerpt: Coalfire Systems, a highly accredited forensic analysis and cybersecurity company that does work for Fortune 500 companies, issued a report Monday which found that 10 full-footage videos the Center for Medical Progress recorded while undercover at Planned Parenthood facilities and related locations “are authentic and show no evidence of manipulation or editing.” “This conclusion is supported by the consistency of the video file date and time stamps, the video timecode, as well as the folder and file naming scheme,” the report states. “The uniformity between the footage from Investigator 1’s camera and Investigator 2’s camera also support the evidence that the video recordings are authentic.” The report also confirms that “edits made to the Full Footage videos [for the shorter YouTube videos] were applied to eliminate non-pertinent footage, such as restroom breaks, meals, and other similar periods lacking pertinent conversation.”

The 13 Things Muslims Will Ban First Once They Replace American Culture

Worth Reading: Ahmed and the Art of the Psychodrama: Ahmed the clockmaker and Columbia’s Mattress Girl are reminders that there are careerist advantages to becoming a victim of religious, racial, or sexual prejudice. By Victor Davis Hanson

Excerpt: Trump supporters lag behind Republican primary voters in general in high-engagement voter categories. Trump also lags significantly in penetration of issue-driven voters. Conversely, he enjoys a significant concentration of support among unengaged voters. One might assume that these unengaged voters are attracted to Trump's brash style and talent for creating sound bites. But will these voters become sufficiently engaged to carry him to the GOP nomination?

Excerpt: “Of course [Donald Trump’s] not a conservative. He was for Nancy Pelosi before he was against Nancy Pelosi . . . Celebrity is everything in this country. If these guys don’t learn how to play the media the way that Barack Obama played the media last election cycle, and the way Donald Trump is playing the media this cycle, we’re probably going to get a celebrity candidate.”

Excerpt: National Democrats have been vocal lately about their desire to resettle hundreds of thousands more “Syrian refugees” in the United States. Yet not one of these ostentatiously compassionate statesmen has offered any of the huddled masses yearning to breathe free refuge on their own fabulously posh estates. The list of multi-millionaire Democrats lecturing the American people on their “duty” is lengthy — Hillary Clinton, John Forbes Kerry, the Kennedys and former House speaker Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), among others.

And more people being terminated because that bottom line looks so much better without salary expenses and all those healthcare costs....or having hours reduced to less than 30, making them seek multiple part-time positions. --Barb

POLL: MOST U.S. MUSLIMS WOULD TRADE CONSTITUTION FOR SHARIAH. 'Quran should be highest authority in America, and Islam the only accepted religion'

On the heels of Barack Obama’s woeful mourning that most Americans have a “distorted impression” of Islam comes a new Fox News poll that won’t exactly help the president’s cause....The poll finds that the majority of Islamic Americans agree that Muslims should be able to forego the Constitution and be governed instead by Sharia law. That’s right, Sharia. (Heard this as "news" on 09/28/15. Apparently, someone just dug it out and blew the dust off it....Article from 06/24/15. --Barb)

Excerpt: There have even been suggestions of a return to the solution of the postwar years, when millions of refugees fleeing to West Germany from former Nazi-held lands were billeted with ordinary families. (Where's Bonhoeffer when we need him? --JB)

New U.S. Army patch for fight against the Islamic State closely resembles Muslim Brotherhood logo

Excerpt: However, G.I. Janes do not belong with G.I. Joes—and fighting is what men with four stars on their shoulders (aka the Service chiefs) are supposed to do. It may seem silly to ask why we even have ground combat units. But it is not clear that everyone in Washington understands. The short answer is: Unlike units that handle logistics, communications, intelligence and other functions, a ground combat unit’s sole purpose is to take the fight to the enemy and to kill or destroy more of them than they can kill of us. ... Anna Simons is a Professor of Defense Analysis at the NavalPostgraduateSchool. The views expressed are her own. (Yet another well thought out commentary about women in the infantry, but one that comes from a very well qualified woman, who also brings up other suggestions about how to improve the overall career situations for women in the military. Will anyone in this Administration pay the least attention to this, will Mabus back off his campaign to jam women Marines down the throats of the generals and into the grunts? I doubt it, but we can hope. Or at least, sometime in the future when others are in charge, the topic will be revisited and proper common sense reapplied. S/F --Del. No. The administration could care less about war-fighting capability or future casualties as long as they please their PC base. None of their sons and daughters will die. ~Bob)

Wonderful: U.S. troops have turned to some unsavory partners to help find warlord Joseph Kony

Excerpt: Working from a new bush camp in the Central African Republic, U.S. forces have begun working closely with Islamist rebels — known as the Seleka — who toppled the central government two years ago and triggered a still-raging sectarian war.

Excerpt: China will be helping out the Syrian government in the fight against Islamic State (ISIS) by sending “military advisers,” media reports have claimed. “The Chinese will be arriving in the coming weeks,” a Syrian army official told the Lebanon-based news website Al-Masdar Al-‘Arabi.

Yes, here's a question that should be asked, and in fact not placed as a question, but as a flat-out demand. Or there are no deals with China on anything. And we turn our best hackers loose with the mission of breaking into everything possible in China, not just the government files, but the files of all the honchos, all the multimillionaires, all the big companies, and publicizing anything and everything that will upset and embarrass them to their own people and the rest of the world. Here's the thing... we could do it, and what would they do in return? Stop shipping us stuff for dollars? Renege on their meaningless promises to cut back on CO2 emission? Or try to hack and steal more than they have been? But on this Administration none of that will happen, Obama still wants his historic moments, and he is not going to play any kind of real hardball with the Chinese, on anything. Least of all on long dead Americans only important now to a few family members. --Del. Don't be silly, Del. Obama would criticize a Muslim or condemn a black murderer before he would raise issues like this when he wants to borrow more money. He didn't ask Iran about Americans being held now! ~Bob

Police officer killed after confronting suspect at a South Carolina mall

Excerpt: Donald Trump is not a serious candidate, and he is either not smart enough or does not care to fake it. His obnoxious behavior, misogynistic rhetoric and appeals to racism have resulted in a monstrous gender gap and overwhelmingly negative marks from Hispanics. The Post/ABC poll shows his favorable/unfavorable split with women is 27/66 percent; with men, it is 43/54 percent; and with Hispanics, it is 17/82 percent.

Excerpt: How did a Muslim from the U.S. come to have the understanding that taking sex slaves and fighting for the Islamic State was his Islamic privilege and duty? After all, we’re constantly told that the Islamic State has nothing to do with Islam, and that Muslims in the U.S. all reject its view of Islam. So was Abu Abdullah “radicalized on the Internet”? If so, why was the peaceful, benign Islam that he supposedly learned in mosques in the U.S. not able to withstand challenge from a twisted, hijacked version of Islam that is so un-Islamic that even non-Muslims like John Kerry and the U.S. Catholic Bishops can spot its un-Islamic character a mile away?

Excerpt: With Syria making national headlines on a daily basis, it’s easy to forget about the Middle East’s other proxy war raging in Yemen. (This situation keeps ramping up, with the Saudis and some friends against the Iranians. I'm hoping the Saudis can get their act together (which they may not, planes along won't do it but they don't have the stomach for bitter ground fights) and retake Yemen and give Iran a black eye. --Del)

Excerpt: The Navy’s operations, on which the sun never sets, are the nation’s nerve endings, connecting it with the turbulent world. Although the next president may be elected without addressing the Navy’s proper size and configuration, for four years he or she will be acutely aware of where the carriers are. Today they are at the center of a debate about their continuing centrality, even viability, in the Navy’s projection of force. Far out into the South China Sea, China is manufacturing mini-islands out of reefs, many of which used to be underwater at high tide.

Excerpt: If he becomes president, Sanders would spend an enormous amount of money: $3.27 trillion. At the very, very least. But he is not just a big-spending liberal. And his agenda is not just about money. It’s also about control.

Excerpt: Following the Taliban’s complete takeover of Afghanistan late last night, Pentagon Press Secretary Peter Cook noted in an early morning press briefing that the Pentagon remains “generally positive” about the war effort and that “there is minimal cause for concern.” “That’s how things go in a protracted counterinsurgency,” Cook told reporters. “You face some minor setbacks regardless of how many troops lose their lives or how many billions of taxpayer dollars are spent equipping local defense forces incapable of defending their own country.”